Media frenzy, confetti greet Lohan’s surrender; judge orders cameras off when the cuffs go on

Confetti punctuates circus around Lohan surrender

LYNWOOD, Calif. — Hitting bottom under Hollywood’s glare, Lindsay Lohan began serving jail time Tuesday for a probation violation that underlined the starlet’s inability to put a 2007 drug case behind her.

Incongruously — or maybe not given the media frenzy surrounding her personal drama — someone showered the actress and the crowd with a blast of confetti outside the Beverly Hills courthouse as she walked in to surrender with dozens of cameras following her.

Two weeks after sobbing at her sentencing, Lohan was more composed but nervous Tuesday, fidgeting with her hair in court as she waited to begin serving her time for violating probation. The judge ordered the cameras off for the moment a bailiff handcuffed the 24-year-old and whisked her into a lockup cell.

Her estranged father, Michael, shouted in court, “We love you, Lindsay!”

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Marsha Revel sentenced the “Mean Girls” star to 90 days in jail, three months in rehab and increased scrutiny by probation officials on July 6 after determining the actress violated her probation by missing seven alcohol education classes since December. Sheriff’s officials said Lohan will end up serving only about two weeks behind bars because of jail overcrowding and anticipated credits for good behavior.

After Tuesday’s brief court hearing, news helicopters chronicled her ride in an unmarked sheriff’s cruiser to a suburban women’s jail about half an hour away. The helicopters surrounded the facility as Lohan entered through a side entrance. Clusters of camera crews awaited Lohan’s arrival inside marked areas surrounded by yellow sheriff’s tape on the grass in front of the county jail, which is located next to a busy freeway in a blue-collar area.

Lohan will serve significantly longer than the 84 minutes she spent at the same jail in her 2007 case. Revel ordered that the actress cannot be freed on house arrest, electronic monitoring or work release.

Lohan’s surrender was long anticipated but not without last-minute drama. Last week she moved into a sober living facility founded by famed celebrity attorney Robert Shapiro, who on Friday said he agreed to represent her.

But by Monday afternoon Shapiro was standing before Revel, announcing he would not be handling it. That prompted widespread speculation about who would represent the actress.

On Tuesday morning it was Lohan’s longtime attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley, who accompanied the starlet to court and stood beside her. Holley acted like she had never left the case and said afterward she will continue to represent Lohan.

“She’s scared as anyone would be, but she’s as resolute and she’s doing it,” Holley said after the hearing.

Lohan was booked into the jail at 10:11 a.m. and sheriff’s department spokesman Steve Whitmore described her as “extremely cooperative.”

Once there, she traded in her dark denim jeans, gray top, black corset belt and black jacket for a jail jumpsuit. She will now spend much of the next few weeks in an isolation unit that has housed celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Michelle Rodriguez.

After a pair of high-profile arrests, Lohan pleaded guilty in August 2007 to two misdemeanor counts of being under the influence of cocaine. She also pleaded no contest to two counts of driving with a blood-alcohol level above 0.08 percent and one count of reckless driving.

She was sentenced to three years of probation but has struggled with the terms, earning a one-year extension in October but still failing to complete her alcohol education program as ordered. Holley said Tuesday she submitted proof that Lohan had finally completed the program.

Lohan was first arrested after a hit-and-run crash on Memorial Day weekend in 2007. Two months later, she was arrested after commandeering a sport utility vehicle and engaging in a chase that ended in downtown Santa Monica. The incident has spawned a civil case that has been delayed because of Lohan’s jail stint. Revel noted that during both of her arrests, Lohan lied about her involvement and said her recent apology didn’t ring true.

The incidents proved to be more than just a blip in Lohan’s personal life. The star of films such as “Mean Girls,” ”Freaky Friday” and “Herbie Fully Loaded” has seen movie roles evaporate. Her last release, “Labor Pains,” didn’t even get a theatrical release.

In recent months, she also has sparred publicly with Michael Lohan, who she sometimes calls her “ex-father.” The two arrived separately for Tuesday’s hearing.

Jail is only the beginning of a period of increased court scrutiny for Lohan, who will now have to report to a probation officer within a day of leaving jail and will have to enter 90 days of rehab.

The time away is impacting several Lohan projects, including her starring role in a biopic on porn actress Linda Lovelace. It has left her unable to promote her upcoming turn as a gun-toting nun in Robert Rodriguez’s “Machete.”

It will also silence her on Twitter, the microblogging service where Lohan frequently goes to post updates and defend herself. Her final post — roughly 12 hours before she walked into the Beverly Hills courthouse — made light of her once promising film career and her looming incarceration.

“The only ‘bookings’ that I’m familiar with are Disney Films, never thought that I’d be ‘booking’ into jail eeeks,” she wrote.